Endoscopic surgery, or what is also called video surgery, employs an external miniaturized video camera attached by fiber optic tubes to a light source and a telescopic lens, both of which are inserted as a unit through a small incision made in a patient's body. The camera projects on to a video screen a picture of the surgical field illuminated by the light source and taken totally within the body. Other surgical instruments, such as scalpels, retractors and the like, which are specially designed for endoscopic surgery are inserted through one or more additional incisions in the patient. As a result, the surgeon does not view the operative field itself, but rather, views the picture on the video screen while performing the surgery.
The benefits derived from this type of surgery are numerous. The process, in some forms, is almost bloodless. Large ugly scars are eliminated. The process is much less traumatic and painful to the patient than open surgery. The patient leaves the hospital in a few days, and often the same day as with some endoscopic procedures in the joints called arthroscopic surgery.
When endoscopic surgery is performed in the chest cavity or thorax, the technique is called thoracoscopic surgery. Quite frequently, the endoscope including the light source and telescopic lens are inserted through small incisions made between the ribs through the intercostal muscle. As indicated above, one or more additional incisions are often made to admit other instruments into the thoracic cavity such as scalpels, retractors and the like.
The displacement of a rib is extremely painful, particularly if it is displaced from the sternum to which it is joined. It has often been said in the vernacular "It is less painful to break a rib than to displace one."
Since thoracic surgery is conveniently performed by inserting the endoscope lens and light source through incisions between the ribs, extreme care must be taken not to displace or separate one rib from another. Various options are open to the surgeon. One is to make a relatively large incision in the intercostal muscle between two adjacent ribs sufficient to admit the scope or the surgical instrument. This results in excessive bleeding, extensive suturing and a longer time to heal than a small incision, which is to be avoided.
Another option is to make a relatively small incision in the muscle and then enlarge the aperture by stretching the muscle rather than cutting it. If this were done transversely of the adjacent ribs, excessive pressure could cause the ribs to be displaced resulting in extreme pain to the patient which could last for days.
It is to this general problem that the present invention is directed.